Is Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town BETTER Than the Original? 

Learn about this series’ confusing localization history here 👉 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3wDJaK_6BNs.html

"These games are meant to be chill". We play Harvest Moon differently :P

1:19 trying to pick up the flower. I believe it happened to everyone.

One thing that disappoints me is no rival marriages. I really wanna see them return

I miss the rival marriages. I loved being invited to Anne and Cliff's wedding. Felt more personal, like you're rooting for your friends. (i also may or may not be purposely triggering their events)

A few minutes in and I already like the revamp on the characters in the remake than the old one. Though I still prefer most of the character designs (art) in the old one, the characters in the remake feels more alive, they have more personalities than before, and you can see that with just a few dialogues. Gameplay-wise, nothing much has changed, though I like the quality of life changes. Well, the original was old so that's understandable. It's weird, I feel the nostalgia, but this game also feels brand new.

I remember playing the PS1 version to death when I was like 12 or 13 years old. Hard to believe it's basically been 20 years since then... My copy should be arriving in the mail today.

i got this game 3 days ago, it is my first harvest moon/story of seasons game ever. let me tell you that im addicted as hell i love it so much! cant stop playing!

It's actually a remake of GBA's Friends of Mineral Town. So any changes it had from PS1 BTN to GBA FoMT also carries here on the remake.

The only thing that bothers me is that the characters look like underaged children in the revamped one and that they removed recipe-less cooking.

Love it! Been playing these since I was a kid. Definitely hope they remake Animal Parade or put Trio of Towns on the switch.

The only harvest moons I wanna see remade now are A Wonderful Life, and the original SNES version

I love love LOVE the QoL stuff, the new characters and the new graphics and art designs... If only they didn't remove experiment cooking and animal sickness/death. You might say that removing animal sickness/death is a plus but not for me. The animal sickness/death was a reminder for me to be better since the only reason why an animal would get sick was because you 1. Forgot to feed it multiple times and 2. left it out in the rain. Also, I wish they didn't add the whole "Hearts Cap". I hate it. It almost made me dislike the game entirely. Its a good Remake but I'll definitely go back to playing BtN even without the QoLs

Lets get real, the original is Back to Nature. This is a remake of the remake.

I think the remake is better,I remember the original being hell with the spaces

I played more friends in mineral town for the GBA, and they actually made some of the changes mentioned for that game as well!

It's kinda sad how they removed rival marriages tho but I guess some people will find it weird how there's gay marriage but only straight couples get married.

Just a little correction many are confused. The first installment of mineral town as we know it here is harvest moon 64. The second installment was released 6 months later on playstation called harvest moon "back" to nature (the back should make it obvious it's not the first installment folks) Then the gba one we know was made. And now this. The 4th remake of the same game. All of them great and brought in a lot of fans to the series. I like them all. I play them all. And if they remake it again I'll play that one too. I literally been playing the same game my whole life and theirs no other game installment or series like that to me. Maybe some of you are the same. Maybe not, if you haven't tried it. Spend a cold winter inside one year and try it. Great memories

Now I want them to port the GameCube Harvest Moon games lol oh! And the wii one's! I'd KILL to play Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade on my switch! :D

Grpwing up my parents wasn't able to spend alot on games so i haven't ever played the Harvest Moon games. But a month ago I bought Friends of Mineral Town and i love this game so much. I have played none stop. I am super excited for Pioneers of Olive town. It looks like it will be even more fun since we can decorate and move buildings around.

Personally, i don't mind the graphics. This game has some incredible gameplay value!

I used to put hundred of hours into the GBA version of this game but I'm not finding this remake to be interesting enough for me. Aside from a few new interesting features like same sex marriage and new NPCs, I find this remake to be lackluster content wise. Was hoping they would go extra mile since switch is a powerful console.

The graphics are nowhere near as polished compared to Animal Crossing New Horizons, however they do seem a bit higher quality overall than I expected. Also, looking at the original's psuedo-3D pixelated sprites, this one is a big step up. I am guessing it looks just fine in hand-held mode.

I adored Back to Nature on the PS1, the original Mineral Town game. I was hooked on it in middle school. I can't play any other farming game because it isn't Mineral Town. That said, I'm super excited for all the QoL they put into this remake, I like the soft and simple graphics, and the different character art has grown on me. Seeing your stamina, ground tiles and tool hits, standing inside crops, automatic putting animals outside and inside, marriage choice... They definitely took note of classic fans' little issues as well as taking hints from modern farmers like Stardew Valley. It's shameful Natsume took away the Harvest Moon name from these devs, but this game is still the Harvest Moon I remember and will always want.

i love cute chibi character models not gonna lie. im trying to determine if i shoild wait for a sale or not.

I think that the sounds, graphics and soundtrack are kinda intentionnaly bad. They are really in the mood of classic harvest moon games such as the og fomt or Magical Melody and im quite happy they went this way. It brings back sooo much memories!

the old one feels so realistic in terms of story than the present in my opinion

I believe the remake is definitely better than original, despite of no rival marriage. And it's obvious better because XSEED is the one who published this, not Natsume.

Not the nostalgia talking because I for one love remake, provided that it is worth the praise. Of course, this isn't all that bad, it just didn't really live up to my hype because Trio of town had so much, I especially love the fact that my child looked like my spouse and I was hoping it'd take a little from the RF entries with more dialogues (or at LEAST three for each location/after heart event) but nope, still the same old... One... Dialogue... (I can't for the life of me remember if the old one had diff dialogues tho 🤔) But that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the game, did I have fun? Yes. Did I like my family and the new look? Absolutely! But is it better?... Well... There are improvements... So I guess that's a yes... But it could have been so much more...😅

Lover of the original (actually preferred over Stardew Valley but might just be nostalgia goggles). I think the issue I have with the graphics that I hope I can disable is the....like, faux depth of field where it seems they blur my peripheral. Seems to be why the screenshots look awful but the game looks mostly great in motion outside of the blurring. I guess I also don't like the Nendroid/Bratz Babies look but it's not too bad Great review though!

I am none of the above; an old Harvest Moon fan that never played the old game and here to see what Mineral Town fans have to say about it both games just for the heck of it

I actually had an old man moment when I started playing this game. I came from the GBA version, and the moment I saw the expanded inventory I just thought, “Kids these days… back in my day we had two inventory spaces and our hands.”

I just feel like the time passed by too quickly and I have to rush through everything and cant seems to relax and enjoy what I wanted to do

You forgot the best quality-of-life change for the remake: You can walk through the crops. No more will the middle crop languish away.

Still loving the music of this game, nothing's changed since its release in GBA. Will hit the store to buy this one.

town villa is building one more house on the land you see in 3:11 , you will get new home there but you can't upgrade, it's will be lvl 1 house forever.

I’m shocked. People don’t like these visuals??? I just started playing and I hadn’t really watched any critical stuff from it yet… I thought it was super beautiful! It doesn’t look like a mobile game at all! It looks like a fully realized remaster. People expect way too much sometimes I feel like. It has charm and heart and it’s cohesive. It’s much better than what they did to ruby and sapphire IMO. The style suits the game much better than the more realistic titles.

i hope they also remake the tales of two towns, it got a lot of potential but it was a bit plain and slow paced in nds :') and can you review runefactory 4?

I actually always really liked the events where you didn't have to do a lot because, at least in earlier Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games, it brings your friendship level up higher with everyone in the town that you talk to during the event. I haven't played the Friends of Mineral Town remake, but I would assume from how it has the same events that it would work the same way.

Yesterday around 1pm i purchased this game underestimating it a bit, with very low expectation... Then.. right now, at 3am on the next day, I have not stopped playing it yet.. first week of summer already

Honestly, for the simple fact that they are more inclusive, they already won me over. It was great to finally be able to enjoy the game as myself and marry someone of the same gender with no discrimination.

I'm okay with the running sound effect. Getting one next month

Been playing it for a week now and it really brings me back to playing magical melody on the game cube for hours as a kid. Would love to see a magical melody remake or a new installment in the series that adds new things to the game. Was worried about the art style at first but I grew to really like it. I also really love Stardew valley and it’s arguably better, but this is a remake of an old game, not a new one. And I’ve already logged maybe 700+ hours on Stardew and I’m bored with it lol.

I hope the next story of seasons game will use mature models and not chibi models like this. I still like the game for nostalgia though

1:17 you can actually end the game earyly in the GameBoy FoMT version too if you keep hitting him with a tool because I think it kills him

The only thing i hate about both of these 2 versions is the baby will never grow up even after 50 years

Oh my gosh! I didn't know they even remade this! I used to play the PS1 version for HOURS as a teen! I just bought this on the Xbox Series X and can't WAIT to play again ❤️

Short answer: No. Many things from the original weren’t added, aka were left out.

I really like Harvest moon games. Only played a few of them. Including the GB one. I never played a modern one though. So maybe time to give them another go.

Did they entirely remove the rival marriages tho? I know rival events do happen (JP version at least), but from what I know, rivals won't marry if your affection level towards any of the parts is higher than that part towards the romantic partner in question. Since I've gotten super friendly with absolutely everyone, they just don't progress (as in, they like you more than the rival/rival likes you more than the marriage candidate), I may start another save at one point pretty much ignoring everyone to see if it happens but... damn I just tend to at the very least greet them so it might be hard.

Haha I’m one of those people who just watches lol since I’m not really a sim fan but great video as always! I don’t think it’s for me still but I definitely get the appeal!

I get serious stardew valley vibes out of this and I love it. Picked up stardew valley because I was obsessed with the reeeaaly old harvest moon, but I think I might give this new one a try now

Just got this game last weekend and while it is slow, I'm having fun with it so far. But I'm super upset to find out there are no NPC marriages. I've never played one of the Harvest Moon/SOS games before where other characters married, and I was psyched to see that happen. I mean, come on, the romance cutscenes between the pairs are still in the game, and it's obvious that they have chemistry and are meant to pair up if you don't marry one of them. Really sad that won't happen in this game.

for me, i cant stand stardew valley, only plays about 2 hours then i got bored quicky, deff not for me. but story of seasons is where my kind of farming genre be, i love this game.

i hope harvest moon a wonderful life will be remake too

Personally I wish that they had a retro graphics option

I've played HM: Back to Nature, HMFOM and HMMFOM. And tbh, I don't think I've had enough. Definitely gonna get this game after this.

The remake of this game is definitely better. I replayed the GBA version not too long ago, and everything was so pixely and small. Glad to see this on a bigger screen honestly with better-ish graphics? BUT if they remade A Wonderful Life, OH MAN, they would really have to up their graphics game since A Wonderful Life is already in 3d!!! Hopefully they remake itttt!!!

I’m watching this while playing and right when you mentioned finding power berries while digging, I found a power berry by digging! What luck!

Thank you so much for this review I'll be buying the PS4 version for Christmas or birthday this year!

i'm in the first group of fans! :D can't wait to play this game tomorrow!!

I'm pretty sure the original on GBA didn't have a time limit, I know the psp version as a 3 year limit. Could be wrong but I restarted the origina GBA and I don't remember it mentioning a 3 year limit

This is the equivalent of fire red or leaf green to red/blue for Pokemon. They absolutely nailed quality of life changes as well as updating graphics. One of my favorite games as of late

I haven’t played the original but I wanted to play this one bc I can finally be a lesbian in game lmao

5:56 about the villa. This thing does exist even in original game (Harvest moon : FoMT, i never touch BTN). But it is very expensive haha...

I loved the GBA version,it was one of my favorite games on that system..I am so excited to play this game,it looks really good..I played HM Light of Hope,and it just wasn't the same Harvest Moon I enjoyed..also IMO the ones on the 3DS weren't much better..this one looks good and I'm looking forward to playing it..this is a must buy game for me 😊

The sound fx are supposed to mimic the original game sound fx pretty closely :)

Okay, a review from a person who buys consoles (from Sony to Nintendo) just to play farming simulation games: the music the new version almost made me cry. I have missed my childhood days so much. But, yes. I don’t like the character visuals as much as the classic one. The older one was more sweet lol

Wait, what's the original game you're comparing the remake to? I don't remember mineral town having a time limit (there was even a collectible you could only get after about 50 years of marriage!) and the crazy expensive town villa was still a thing back then too. But I loved this video! I'm scared of ruining my nostalgia/love for the game since it was my first harvest moon game and it holds a place very close to my heart. The video really does help ease my fear, and I'll probably pick it up on steam while my switch is being repaired :D

I wonder, if I give all preserved flower to every marriage candidate, what happened? Is there a fight scene or something like that

I think I'll get to play tomorrow! This video is what I was looking for. Lolol I played a lot of Harvest Moon games (before it became SoS, about that time is when I didn't play video games for awhile). Your review sounds pretty fair and I'm excited for the game! Mineral Town was my absolute fav. I spent many all nighters tryna get married and have a nice farm and stuff. I was 10 when this came out, and had already played the boy version. Same with pokémon. So when both pokémon and harvest moon introduced girl characters I was over the moon 🥰 So I can only guess how excited some are about them getting rid of the silly 'best friend' thing. Ik at the time, even that was pretty surprising for a video game. It sounds mild, but... i mean.. only at the new millenia, basically, did we get girl characters to play as. 🙄 And just now did animal crossing include actual different skin colors, not just a tan. We getting there. 😅🙃 So, this game holds a lot of nostalgia, and thats also why I'm gonna say I like the graphics. I want them to give the same feel as the old games and this works! I'm sure this game might be that same nostalgic favorite, especially for any gay kids who can marry whichever character they want now without having to play as a different gender!

I can appreciate some of the things added. It makes me happy for people that this version exists with elements like same-sex relationships. There's a lot to gain like general UI improvements and quality of life stuff. But honestly, I'll just always stick with Back to Nature. I think it's just the better game. Despite being older the visuals look good and have more detail to them. The new game has a strange mix of trying to modernize some designs while also being ridiculous with things like the Mayor's hat. I think in trying to widen the appeal it erased a lot of personality from the characters. What did those people do to poor Karen? She went from having one of the best designs in the game to...being generic. Also RIP Ann's braided ponytail. She also lost a bit of her personality and charm for the sake of generally trying to update her. The biggest fails though I think go to being weirdly safe. Having it be possible for animals to die due to neglect was both fair and a good reminder for people to care about what they are doing. Also sucks that they tossed rival events leading to marriage. I get that the JP playerbase didn't love them, but it made the world feel more connected. The lives of the other characters shouldn't stop just because you decided not to marry them. Guess it makes sense that they also added an easy mode to highlight that direction. Though at least you can ignore that if you want to so I wouldn't call it a negative. Definitely not going to say that Friends of Mineral Town is awful since it isn't. There's a lot of stuff thrown in there. But...if I want to play this sort of game on a handheld or on the go...I'll just boot up BTN on my Vita. I like it more overall.

I loved the harvest moon series from the start. After the split I enjoyed Story of seasons, especially trio of towns. Idk what it is but with this remake I constantly feel bored. Idk what to do, just random collecting stuff, watering, mining. I bet it's me don't get me wrong but I feel lost in this game. What do I do wrong?

You had me at "gay marriage"

That footage of Stardew Valley cleaning grass with the hoe hurts

The bro and bro moments is urrrggh. Hahahah

After a lot of research, this review finally made me decide on buying this on PS5. Especially the sentence comparing it to the PS1 version. I played PS1 Harvest Moon (Back to Nature) ~20yrs ago & I just want the closest possible remake that exists to re-live that nostalgia (& get that platinum trophy!) 😀 thank You

Thanks for the review. I'm interested in trying a more recent title and not sure about A Wonderful Life.

Only thing that bugs me is character art is...a bit too outlandish

I am pretty sure that in the gba version you also don't have a time limit. By the way random trivia: the people who made this series are the same guy that made Senran Kagura. This is why there are some... Messed up things, like some dark backstories or the sheer requirements to marry the Witch Princess, in a series meant for kids.

I really have missed the people of Mineral Town. 😄

The time limit to get the farm back in working order again had already been removed in the GBA game.

I think this is nostalgia talking but "Back to Nature" is a cooler name imo

Meanwhile my save file on my GBA cartridge keeps corrupting 👁👄👁 I’ve come to terms that it’s probably a fake-

Was going to sub before you said Stardew valley was better.. No sir. No sir.. That was a good game but it felt like it tried to cram too much into it and kind of half flushed out all of it. This one is focused and polished to a nice shine.

The spritework in the original is so beautiful... I have a hard time accepting the new visual style

I really hate the way they redid the cooking system, I like being able to try my own recipes and choose my own ingredients, I also don't like that I have to breed my animals now to get the best out of them, cow breeding is so damn slow

My first harvest moon game was tree of tranquility it’s so sad that marvelous are not gonna port it on the switch

I love how they don’t change the theme song

Althought graphics is better, the memories of Harvest Moon & FoMT is best. Beside, just a little bit things are new, the rest of story as the same. The special of farming game is arrange and decorate the farm, this game don't update it. I will play it again if the game can arrange farm like SOS and SOS Trio of Town on 3DS.

oh my god SAME. legit the first thing i did was lower the sfx volume bc i hated the sound of the footsteps so much! i guess i'm spoiled by how nice link's footsteps in BOTW were..and even ACNH's. lol it sucks that they got this crucial sound effect all wrong. :( i actually even prefer the OG gba fomt's cartoony footstep sfx over this one.

No they didn’t add the option to end the game in 5 minutes! That’s always been in the game! ;)

I love how unbiased he is in commenting to the game

I was dithering on whether to get this but your review just convinced me to get it! I recently got into Stardew Valley but felt somewhat overwhelmed so it’ll be nice to have a more chill and nostalgic farming game to alternate with

Looks nice. I've played a lot of the SNES, 64 version and BTN so I should give it a try.

Solid review, can't wait to play this game aaaaaaaaaa

They changed some things that made the game incredibly easy compared to back to nature . Can’t believe we played really hard games when we where kids. It was so rewarding beat the original one. Now not that much.

The day I want seeds is the day when the general story is close, and half of it is due to festival.

Thank you for your review! I played my first Harvest Moon game on PSP and have been quite disappointed with the series after that. But your review has helped me make the decision on getting Mineral Town! Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy ^.^

When you say the game has no time limit, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean you can play the game forever (like Animal Crossing) or does it mean that you can just take more time to reach the end of the game?